A series of brutal slayings in the Houston area over the past three
months brought law enforcement together Tuesday in a public show of
force against MS-13, a notoriously violent transnational street gang.

The spate of ruthless slayings, and several
older homicides including two pending cases where the death penalty is
being sought, thrusts Houston into the national debate over border
enforcement as President Donald Trump has repeatedly held up crime by
MS-13 gang members as a corrosive effect of illegal immigration.

On Tuesday, law officers from local, state
and federal agencies gathered with prosecutors to announce the arrests
of nearly a dozen alleged members of the MS-13 street gang. Four of
those are accused of hacking a confidential informant to death with a
machete in Cullinan Park in southeast Houston on June 6.